Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Lord Jim, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fantasy vs. Reality
Justice and Duty
Racism and Colonialism
Truth and Perspective
Summary
Analysis
Jim continues to lead a wandering life after the Patna inquiry—there are many similar incidents. Marlow can’t decide whether this behavior means Jim is facing his past or just running away from it.
Jim’s restlessness and physical movements around the world reflect his mental state as he tries to figure out what type of person to be after he loses his sailing certifications.
Themes
In Bangkok, Jim gets into a bar-room fight with a Danish sailor who gets nasty after losing at billiards. Though Jim may have been defending himself, Jim’s actions draw condemnation because the sailor is a respectable lieutenant. The incident troubles Marlow because he fears Jim will get a reputation as a “common loafer.”
The bar-room fight foreshadows one possible life for Jim, where he becomes a brutish drunkard. Alcohol can be a way of mentally avoiding problems, and it might eventually replace Jim’s physical roaming.
Themes
As Jim moves from job to job, Marlow notices that he seems to be losing some of his resilience. Marlow meets Jim one day at a new job. Jim says the job is killing him, and Marlow knows it’s not due to the difficulties of the work but due to how unfulfilling it is. Marlow offers to try to get Jim a job on the West Coast of the United States. Jim asks what difference this would really make, and Marlow agrees.
Young and still eager to prove his worth, Jim is resilient in the face of setbacks at his new jobs. Nevertheless, he’s not invincible, and both he and Marlow realize that a lack of mental fulfillment can eventually wear a person down as well.
Themes
Marlow decides to consult a wealthy merchant he knows named Stein. Marlow believes Stein is one of the most trustworthy people he knows. Stein looks like a student, even though he’s 60 and has bushy white eyebrows. Stein had been on adventures across Asia in his youth, and he’s also earned a reputation across Europe as a naturalist. Marlow feels that Stein is the right person to help Jim.
Stein is one of the novel’s more mysterious characters. Although Marlow says that Stein is one of the most trustworthy people he knows, this may be Marlow’s own way of reassuring himself that it is morally OK to introduce Jim to Stein. Despite Stein’s many accomplishments, it’s also clear that many of Stein’s business deals don’t seem to be entirely legitimate.
Themes
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